


What Goes Unsaid

by bumblingbees



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Anxiety, Chara Has Issues, Chara Has Their Own Body, F/F, F/M, Frisk Uses Sign Language, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mental Health Issues, Past Child Abuse, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", Sans has to be an adult, Selectively Mute Frisk, Soft Chara, Soft Frisk, Sort Of, Tough Chara, all aboard the fun train, also relationship tags are not in your face, but still pretty visible for Undyne/Alphys, everyone lives happily ever after, there must be magic about because only non-haters can understand them, these tags are so sad, we're gonna explore character relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 08:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15191096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bumblingbees/pseuds/bumblingbees
Summary: Frisk won’t fight back. So Chara has to be tough enough for the both of them.(in which frisk is too soft, chara is too hard, and sans always seems to be the one on babysitter duty)





	What Goes Unsaid

The first time Sans gets called to the school to pick up the ambassador and their entourage, it’s not for what he expects.

His boss had been kind enough to let him leave early for whatever “family emergency” was occurring at the kids’ school. Tori hadn’t been able to handle it, she was in class and had students to teach. Papyrus was off doing Papyrus things with Undyne and Alphys in tow (something about a midday training session down on the coast), Mettaton was on tour, Asgore–according to Tori–couldn’t be trusted, so somehow down the long list of makeshift relatives that loved the kiddos, Sans got dragged into the whole ordeal.

Not that he minded much, he got to duck out of work early after his mid-morning lunch. He liked Frisk. He could take or leave Chara.

He takes a shortcut and ends up outside the principal’s office face to face with Culprit One and Two. As he bends back into reality, popping into existence a few feet shy from where they’re sitting, Frisk jolts at his sudden appearance. Asriel, who is to the left of Chara, yelps. Chara’s blink is the only sign they’re unsettled. They smile–like him, they’re always smiling.

“hiya,” he says with a lazy wave.

“Whoa!” Asriel exclaims.

“Greetings.” Chara dips their head. Ever formal, ever too polite to the point it’s unnerving. They curl their hands into fists on their knees and lick their lips in anticipation. Small tics that Sans has come to learn that they’re uneasy. Frisk, although passive, is much easier to read. They’ll always let you know how they’re feeling. Asriel...well, the kid just cries a lot.

Sans takes the three of them in and his eyes widen. His smile falters a fraction.

“whoa. what happened to you two?”

Frisk has a tissue pressed to their nose and the beginnings of a black eye is starting to puff up. There are fresh scrapes on Chara’s knuckles and–Sans grimaces–dried blood. Asriel, on the other hand, looks just fine. A bit worried, but uninjured.

Culprit One nudges their companion with their elbow. Culprit Two huffs and holds the tissue to Culprit One’s face so they can sign.

_‘B-I-L-L-Y pushed me off the swing.’_

_“_ That’s not all they did,” Chara points out. “He also called you a freak and a monster lover. So I rearranged his face.”

_‘I wish you wouldn’t.’_

“I wish _you_ would.” Chara’s voice is even and cold and Sans knows by the way they turn their head to give Frisk a pointed glare that it’s time to butt in.

“hey now,” Sans warns.

_'Sorry.’_

“I’m not.”

Sans heaves a sigh and faces Asriel. “and you?”

“Oh! I’m going to talk with Mr. Matthews,” Asriel says.

“He is a key witness in my prosecution,” Chara remarks.

 _'He saw B-I-L-L-Y push me. His mom is really mad,’_ Frisk signs.

“Asriel is serving as a neutral party. Well, a not so neutral party I suppose. He is just as upset as I am,” Chara explains. “Billy’s mother is attempting to get me suspended for defending Frisk. My cause was just and suspension does not scare me, so I am not too perturbed over the matter.”

Sans almost wishes he was still at work. He doesn’t want to get involved.

“Hm. Speak of the devil.”

The door to the principal’s office swings open and out emerges a neatly dressed woman, a kid about Frisk’s age, and a man Sans assumes is the principal.

“Asriel Dreemurr?” the man asks.

Asriel wrings his paws together and gives Culprit One and Two a nervous grin. Frisk returns the gesture with a reassuring thumbs up.

Asriel and the principal disappear into his office.

Sans is...unsure what to make of the whole situation. Part of him wants to take the nearest shortcut and slip away from the responsibilities he was not expecting would be part of the job. He knows Tori is counting on him and he has promises to keep. He gets along with Frisk. He got to know the kid on their journey through the Underground. He supposes they became pretty good friends even. He knows they’re much closer to his far cooler brother, but there’s a way about how the kid sometimes slips their fingers into his hand and squeezes tight that he knows Frisk relies on him. For whatever reason, he steadies them.

For whatever reason, he’s wrapped around their little finger.  

Chara…

Chara is a whole other ball game.

Since leaving the Underground a few short months ago (allowing time for the initial hubbub of the monsters’ return to the surface to simmer, for politics and relations to smooth out, for peace talks and paperwork and monsters to settle down), Sans has taken time to learn what he can about Frisk and their...companion. Picking up on cues, noticing quirks and tics and signs of (un)happiness. It took weeks to pick apart Chara’s firm composure and unrelenting smile to be comfortable enough to even approach the kid. Still, he isn’t sure about it.

But what can he do? The kid and their companion are attached at the hip. It’s rare that he ever gets the kid to himself nowadays, ever since he learned that the first fallen human and the Prince had returned shortly before they left for the Surface.

The parallels between the kid and their companion are remarkably uncanny. Easily dismissed once spending time around them.

They still put Sans on edge.

The woman’s voice draws Sans out of his thoughts. She’s got a tight hand on her son’s shoulders and he’s covered in dirt and has a rapidly bruising face and a fat lip to match.

“Your parents should be ashamed of you,” she sneers. “If you were my kid I’d–”

“whoa there, friend-o,” Sans says, stepping in and not so much breaking the tension but wrangling it into a lazy headlock. He shifts uncomfortably, throwing on his usual smile and sinking into a relaxed slump. “i think we’re all getting off on the wrong foot here. howsabout we try this one again, huh? i’m sans. sans the skeleton.”

He offers a hand (and an awaiting whoopie cushion) to the woman who turns up a rapidly wrinkling nose at the sight of him. She pulls her son back as if the sight of Sans disgusts her.

“welp, alrighty then. fine by me pal, you gotta do you.” He withdraws his hand, habitually returning it to his awaiting pocket and realizes he’s in his work uniform, not his usual hoodie. He throws a hand to the back of his neck and scrapes at his skull. He grins and gives her a nonchalant shrug as if he’s unbothered by the whole affair.

He doesn’t want to get involved.

Instead, he contemplates sneaking the whoopie cushion into her back pocket while she’s too busy going on by how awful it is her son has a swollen lip. The school might as well be on fire for the way the lady keeps yacking on about it.

Once again the door to the office opens and out comes the principal and Asriel. The little boss monster is still wringing his paws. This time his eyes are glistening with tears.

Sans knows that Chara’s posture is immaculate for a kid their age but at the sight of a distraught Asriel they go rigid as if their spine is replaced by a steel rod. Their hands fly back to their knees. Frisk holds their tissue and grasps their hand before it can stiffen up completely.

“Chara Dreemurr,” the principal announces, motioning for the child to follow. Frisk begins to get up and makes to move after them but the principal snaps his fingers and points for the human to sit back down.

“Just your sister, Mister Dreemurr.”

Ouch, two for one. Maybe it’s the long hair (even though Frisk has unruly curls and Chara a well maintained bob, another place their similarities stop). Maybe it’s Frisk’s freckled splattered face, or that Chara’s all dimples and rosy cheeks and teeth. Maybe it’s Frisk’s overalls and bright yellow rain boots. Maybe it’s Chara’s poise.

 _Maybe_ it’s intolerance.

With their free hand, Frisk begins to rapidly sign to Chara. Sans catches bits of their one sided conversation as he gazes up at the principal. By their body language and the snippets of conversation, he pieces enough together to know that Chara is frightened.

What could make a kid so terrified of another human?  

Some questions are better left unanswered.

Chara composes themselves–so quickly that if he blinked, he would have missed it. Their response is easy and simple: they gaze up at Mr. Matthews with vivid red eyes and paint a picture perfect smile on their face.  

“Just Chara will do.”

Asriel gives Chara’s arm a squeeze. “Um, excuse me Mr. Matthews, but Frisk is the same way. They’re not a boy, or a girl. They’re just Frisk.”

Mr. Matthews snaps his fingers again. Chara stands. In one swift motion they smooth out the front of their sweater and fold their hands in front of them.

Frisk’s hands fly as they sign to him. His teeth grind in his smile and he feels like one of Snowy’s puns.

He’s going to get involved.

“hiya. i’ll step right on in with the kid, thanks.”

Mr. Matthews seems to finally notice that there’s been a skeleton in the room the entire time. His pale eyes roam over Sans up and down, then down and up again. Maybe it’s his gravelly voice. Maybe it’s his uniform. Maybe it’s his height.

 _Maybe_ it’s ignorance.

He calms the increasing cadence of his SOUL. Humans–outside of his human(s)–are weird.

“sans. sans the skeleton.” He sticks his hand out to introduce himself and is denied yet again. Today it’s Humans 2, Sans 0. At this point he’s used to it.

Mr. Matthews clears his throat. “Only parents are allowed. And how are you, er, affiliated with the... _human.._.Dreemurr children?”

At this point he’s in too deep to turn back now. He casts Frisk and Chara a look. An untrained eye would never be able to tell Chara is horrified by the exchange. Their smile doesn’t quite meet their eyes (it never does, not really). Frisk appears as nervous as ever and he _knows_ they’re about to light up like a frickin Gyftmas tree.

“i’m their dad. can’t you tell? we look just alike.”

And...there it is. Frisk lets out a little gasp behind him and he bites back a chuckle. There’s a dull smack of Asriel facepalming. Mr. Matthews’s eyes narrow.

“heheh, just joking,” he says. “looks like you can see right through me.”

Asriel snorts. Frisk giggles. He can feel Chara’s eyes boring a hole through his cranium.

“i’m, uh, actually one of their legal guardians. i signed the paperwork before these two started here. so...i’ll be coming in with chara.” Sans side-eyes the child. Their arms slacken a fraction of an inch. They’re...relieved.

Mr. Matthews, however, is annoyed.

“Very well.” He gives Sans a curt nod and pivots, retreating back into his office. Sans nods his head and gives Chara an easy smile.

“c’mon, bud.”

He ambles in after Mr. Matthews, throwing Frisk and Asriel a wink and the woman and her son a stare. He enters first, trying to put as much space between Chara and Mr. Matthews as he can.

The meeting doesn’t last long. Sans fights against it for Tori’s sake, but Chara ends up suspended for a few days (a punishment that doesn’t make much sense to him, because what kid doesn’t like playing hooky anyway?). Frisk is told from now on they have to share the swing set. An indignant Asriel almost ends up getting suspended alongside of Chara. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you gotta keep the peace.

A foreboding thought. Some people are past helping.

In the end he knows Chara will never admit it, but he can tell they appreciate it as he takes the three of them home for the day. The kid is a prickly, knotted thing wound tight in on themselves like a rubber band ready to snap. When they regard him, their barbs are a little less sharp.

He's an adult. He's been one for quite some time. He wonders if this is what it _feels_ like to be an adult.

**Author's Note:**

> this is going to be a collection of shorts where sans is always bailing the kids out of some kind of trouble! 
> 
> we'll have to see where the road takes us. I have a pretty good idea with what i'm going to do and most of this is going to be exploring relationships and some headcanons of mine so...here we go!


End file.
